The approval chain

The approval chain is your project's org chart for sign-off. It decides whose Inbox a timesheet or invoice lands in, and in what order. Producers build it. If a producer gave you rights in it, start at If you're an approver.

How it works

You, the producer, are always at the top and can't be removed. Co-producers sit beside you. They can edit the chain and give final sign-off too. Below you, you add approvers and arrange them in a tree where each one reports to the approver above.

Submitted timesheets and invoices climb that tree one level at a time. Hours and invoices each have their own route: where an item starts depends on the department and the duty (see Assigning departments). Only approvers who hold Timesheet sign off hours, and only those who hold Finance sign off invoices. Anyone in between without that duty is skipped, and so are unfilled positions, crew who haven't confirmed and whoever submitted the item. An approver's own hours go to the nearest qualifying approver above them, never to themselves. At the top, whoever approves first (you or a co-producer) makes it final.

Setting up the chain

You build the chain on the project's Crew tab, under Approval chain & rights. It only shows once the project has at least one position, and only on Main, so it's hidden while a scenario is active.

You add approvers by position, filled or Unfilled. Every approver needs at least one duty or right. Directly under you, an approver without departments becomes a whole-team role. The steps are in Set up your approval chain.

Assigning departments

Every department with a position on the project shows as a small chip. Drag a chip onto the approver who should cover that department. The departments an approver holds are their scope: give someone Timesheet and only Camera, and camera hours from crew outside the chain come to them. Anything from approvers or chain members placed below them also passes through them on its way up, as long as they have the duty for it. The tree decides: a department belongs to the deepest approver who holds it, and anything you don't assign stays with you.

The chips on the cards show where each department sits. Hours and invoices from crew outside the chain go first to the lowest approver who holds their department and has the duty for it: Timesheet for hours, Finance for invoices. If there is none, they come straight to you. So if the approver holding a chip only has Timesheet, that department's invoices come to you, even when someone above them has Finance but doesn't hold that department. An approver lower in the tree who holds no departments gets nothing from crew outside the chain. They still approve what comes up from the approvers seated under them.

Duties & rights

Tap an approver to set their duties & rights:

• Timesheet: approves hours and can set the actual wrap for their departments.
• Finance: approves invoices and sees rates and pay.
• Team forming: adds and recommends crew in their departments.
• Planning: plans the schedule and crew for their departments and sends it to you for approval. See Planning.
• Accounting: marks approved invoices from their departments as paid (Mark as paid) under Hours & pay → Invoices, and downloads them. Also sees rates and pay. Doesn't approve invoices and doesn't get the project reports.

Timesheet and Finance are approval duties: submitted items route through this person and wait in their Inbox. Team forming, Planning and Accounting are additional rights. They unlock actions, and nothing ever waits on them. Because Finance and Accounting are separate, one person can approve invoices while someone else pays them.

Rights and departments are independent. Someone can approve hours for one department without seeing anyone's pay.

Invoices

Invoices have their own route, separate from hours. An invoice goes first to the lowest approver who holds the crew member's department and has Finance, otherwise straight to you. An approver's own invoice goes to the nearest approver above them with Finance. From there it climbs one level at a time, only through approvers with Finance. So one department's hours and invoices can sit with entirely different people. A Finance approver can only Approve, which forwards the invoice to the next one up. Request changes is for you and your co-producers alone. While an invoice is with a Finance approver, you see "Waiting for the finance approver" on it. Once it reaches you, you give the final approval. Settling and paying are covered in Invoices.

Changing the chain

Drag an approver onto another to make them report to that person, or drop them beside one to place them next to that approver, under the same manager. To take a department back, drag its chip onto your own card. If you drag the last department off an approver who has no reports, you're asked whether to remove them.

Delete approver (in their details) asks you to confirm. Their reports move up to the approver they reported to.

Items nobody has approved yet are routed again after every change. An item already part-way up stays where it is unless its holder can no longer approve it. It then moves to the next approver above.

Whole-team roles: the production office

Most approvers own departments and sit in the tree. A few roles work across the whole production, like a bookkeeper who settles everyone's invoices, a coordinator who forms crew for every department, or a planner. Seat them in the Production office band, directly under you.

Tap Add whole-team role, pick the position and choose their rights. Whole-team roles carry additional rights only (Team forming, Planning, Accounting), so nothing waits on them or passes through them on its way to you.

Setting up a bookkeeper

• To settle invoices only, give them a confirmed position on the project, then add them here with Accounting.
• To approve invoices as well, they need Finance. That duty routes by department, so put them in the tree (not the production office) with the departments whose invoices they approve. See Assigning departments.
• To export the project reports too, add them as a co-producer instead. That needs a producer account.

Filtering by right

The Filter by right: chips above the chart (Timesheet, Finance, Team forming, Planning, Accounting) all start switched on, which means no filter. Switch one off to hide every approver who holds none of the rights still on. To see who approves invoices, for example, leave only Finance on.

While any chip is off, the reports of a hidden approver move up so the chart stays connected, and dragging is disabled. Switch them all back on to edit the chain.

Planning

With the Planning right you build scenarios for your departments and send them to the producer. The live plan doesn't change until they approve.

1. Draft your schedule and team changes in a scenario.
2. In the scenario menu, tap Submit for approval. The scenario locks and shows "Awaiting the producer's approval".
3. The outcome shows on that scenario only: approved, or "Declined by the producer" with their note.
4. After a decline, edit the scenario and tap Resubmit for approval.

If you plan for specific departments, you can only add or change positions in those departments. Shooting days are different. A production has one calendar, so adding, removing or moving a day proposes it for everyone. Work rules, per diem on days and rate changes to existing positions are left out of your request. If you also hold Finance or Accounting, the rate you give a position you add goes along with it. Otherwise the producer sets it. Releasing confirmed crew or changing their position stays with the producer. A planner without departments plans for the whole team. Their request covers the whole project, and the producer reviews all of it.

On the project's Planning tab you also see crew clashes inside the project for your departments, such as one signed crew member on two units at overlapping times.

Planning doesn't put anything in your Inbox. Your requests land in the producer's, and Reviewing planner requests explains their side.

If you're an approver

If you hold Timesheet, the project's Hours & pay tab shows Team next to My hours. If you hold Accounting, it shows Invoices. Finance, Team forming and Planning don't add a view there. Anything waiting on you lands in your Inbox under On me.

• Timesheet: you approve hours for your departments and can set the actual wrap. See Review and approve hours and Timesheet changes for how to ask for a fix.
• Finance: invoices come to you for approval (see Invoices). Pay amounts in the Team view only show if you hold Finance or Accounting.
• Team forming: you can Recommend crew for your departments. See Recommendations.
• Planning: see Planning.